Removed CGs

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the CGs removed from Soul Link. I finally received some word, and for now at least the official statement is as follows:

“Thank you for your feedback regarding Soul Link‘s CG.
A total of 6 CGs from the game will be removed due to having an arguably underage looking character naked.
Because we don’t want to risk getting the law in the way of our future releases, we have decided to cut this CG from this release.
Just to reassure you, no part of text was removed from the game.
I hope you understand that it was a difficult decision made under the current circumstances, and if this issue comes up again in the future, we will be sure to let you know before the release.”

So unfortunately yes, the decision to remove the CGs currently stands. If I hear any more news regarding this decision, I will post it here.

The CGs that have been removed are all CGs which featured the character Inatsuki Nanami in the nude. Though they total 6 CGs, it’s more like 4 CGs have been removed. The first is an image of Nanami in the shower with Nao. The next one is an image of Nanami in the shower, washing Ryouta’s back. The third image is simply a variant of this with her eyes closed. The fourth CG is an image of her after she climbs on bed and gets on top of Ryouta. The image is drawn from his perspective. The fifth CG is a variant of this image with her eyes half-closed. The sixth is an image of Sayaka catching the two characters in the act. In case it helps any, I would like to note that only 6 out 174 total event CGs have been removed.

Also, for clarification, the uncensored tag on the main site means that the HCGs are uncensored so you can see Shuhei’s cock or Aki’s pussy clearly without any nasty mosaics blocking the way.

20 Comments

This announcement is very disappointing, and I fear Mangagamer intends to take the censorship even further than JAST. At least with the Family Project incident, Peter noted:
“We could have had some kind of blanket declaration that all characters are aged 18 or older, despite the incredibly clear context that she was not emotionally or physically an adult, ready to take on the complex challenges of sexual love with another human being. We could have changed every instance of “high school” to some nonexistent type of school that comes between high school and college. We might instead have removed all lines that refer to her being under the drinking age, which would (I think) have been a lot worse than the rather small changes we did make.”

In Mangagamer’s case, it’s pretty clear that the focus is on the CG and the character looks, with no such alternative.

I urge Mangagamer to reconsider this decision. Based in the Netherlands / Japan as they are, they have little to fear themselves from the obscenity laws. Their contractors such as translators living in other countries can work without the images. The only ones they’re “protecting” are the fans, and the fans do NOT want to be protected. Sticking to this decision can only lead to the ruin of Mangagamer. The hardcore fans who support Mangagamer will not stand for such broadly-implemented censorship, and will actively boycott their products. With MG’s current lack of PR, they rely almost completely on word of mouth to reach their customers. No hardcore fans = no word of mouth = drastically reduced sales.

Please don’t commit suicide like this. Delay the game if need be, but seriously consider the consequences before you release a censored game.

Nice way for them to selectively interpet what the word Uncensored means.

But as the people have said before, when you’re pandering to a very small niche market, any decisions such as the one they have made will cause your fanbase to turn against you.

JAST can survive things like this because they have JLIST to continue pouring money into the company coffers and they’ve been around long enough to have a stable fanbase who’d buy from them no-matter what. As far as I’m aware, MangaGamer have no alternative source of funding and rely on their gaming business to stay afloat and have not been around long enough to gain that same respect.

Considering all the previous screw ups with bad translations, games removed from the website and delays, with the release of Shuffle! it seemed the company were starting to finally set themselves up as a reliable English translator of H-games. Now they’re effectively choosing to discard all the hard work they’d put in previously and doom themselves to failure.

Personally, I wasn’t even following the release of Soul Link but if this is going to be MangaGamers stance from now on, then I have to say I won’t be purchasing any further games from them. It’s almost guaranteed that Koihime Musou will now be hacked to pieces and I’m not willing to support a company that still expects me to pay them good money for a product they feel they can edit as they wish.

I think Manga Gamer needs to understand that once they take this step, there will be no turning back. There will be no “oops, we’ll do better next time” and the typical “we’re just testing the market” won’t be a good enough excuse to motivate the fanbase to trust them again. It’s taken a good 2 years (or more) and tons of bad translations and delays for Manga Gamer to establish the reputation that they have right now and virtually overnight, with the announcement of “censorship” it’s on the brink of shattering.

I have to somewhat agree on people commenting here. Even though I personally don’t care much about Soul Link or missing loli CGs, there are many people that do, and who will use this as reason to not buy this, or other future MG releases.
Yagami: If you want to see Nanami naked so badly, there will most likely be unofficial patch within week of the release, since after all, no text was altered. It will be as simple as reinserting the images.

Anyway, thanks for clarification on this Kouryuu. What’s the status on Higurashi release, was it pushed back due to this? That would be disappointing since I was planning on getting it for Christmas.

In my opinion,what bothers in that statement is not the fact that they removed Loli CG’s,but the fact that they’re removing content from the original game ._.
This really brings down the quality that we expected.And really,what the hell?With Shuffle,all characters are below 18(but they can make excuses,saiyng that they’re older),and have Primula,that looks like a 12 year old girl.I was looking forward to Soul Link since it’s a Navel game,but now…I really do hope they change this decision…

I think it is very unfair that everyone is bitching about several CGs of underage girl being removed and noone is praising about the de-censoring of mosaics which I think is a big change for the better from the original japanese version. I would like to see the wave of rage if this was the opposite. If the original version was without mosaics and Mangagamer added them. I’m pretty sure people would be pissed even more than in this case.

I’m gonna end up getting Soul Link eventually but it won’t be straight away as the release is close to “When They Cry” but it is still disappointing when previous games have gone unedited to start doing it now.

As a previous poster has stated it seems a waste of time doing Koihime Musou as half the cast doesn’t just seem underage they are very clearly underage.

Luckily for me I can speak and read Japanese relatively fluently, so I can still get Japanese eroge and play them. However, since I didn’t already have Soul Link, I was thinking of helping support the market for English-translated eroge considering that English is my native language. That being said the problem is that Mangagamer is altering the original game as Zero Cool stated above and that turns me off to buying their releases even as a method of supporting the market. I have a way out of this situation since I speak Japanese, but what about those that don’t?

Mangagamer has a bit of a sour reputation in the translation department already, but most people have stuck by them because they have little other choice. But with altering the game itself, what’s to say that people won’t just turn back to JAST and fan-based translation groups? I personally don’t really see what benefit Mangagamer brings to the table anymore. There seems to be very little actual business knowledge about the English-speaking market held by the heads of this company as well. Balancing political ramifications against the fanbase itself is rather difficult, true. However, that is something that companies with stable foundations think about. Mangagamer’s foundation is more like soft clay that is starting to turn into quicksand.

My suggestion is that the company try to understand the needs of their market first before they try to cover their asses against a law that will have very little effect against them because of their geographical location. Right now they need to solidify their position in the market because that is what is most necessary to them.

Income is a company’s lifeblood and laws are the obstacles they have to dodge. However, as any athlete could tell you, it’s impossible to jump a hurdle if you’re already dead from blood loss.

Evospace seems to have beat me to it, but allow me to give a reply. We have heard your voices. I have communicated them to the officials in charge of this decision. We understand your concern and Evospace and I are currently discussing ways to handle the situation with our supervisor. As he said, the decision to remove the CGs is not final yet. We are listening, we are discussing the matter, and we do wish to release a quality product that our customers can enjoy.

I am really sorry but i don’t plan to buy something that was censored. Even if the law is strict and you can’t help it and do it any other way, i don’t want to pay money for something like that. Neither do i buy any games that get censored because of the law in my country, it just isn’t meant that way. I know that it is not your fault and everything but that is my view.

If someone provides a patch after the release to get the missing original pictures back in, like with FP, and i can be sure that no text was left out or drastic changed i will make sure to buy and support you.

Sadly in the UK once the new Corenors Crime and Justice bill is signed in having naked drawn characters who might be/implied are under the age of 18 is the same as owning child porn. So even the old “all characters are over 18” wont wash in the UK, if they’re flat chest or wearing a school uniform, it’s sex crimes are us, no testicals and your name on the magical list of dangerous people.

I think the problem is that if someone is prosecuted for said stupid reasons, they would be labeled as a pedo-sex offender for the rest of their life. As a result, the sheer fear of such persecution would cause many to just abandon or go underground with their anime hobby.

@kouryuu: If they will not agree to release the game with the CGs intact, perhaps talk to them about an optional, official patch to add the CGs back into the game? As far as I’m aware, due to where Mangagamer is located, there’s nothing stopping them from releasing something such as that.

This way, if they’re worried about other countries starting a fuss over it, add a disclaimer to the patch to the effect of “This patch re-inserts the CGs regarding Nanami into the game. Only download and use this patch if the CGs in question are not against the laws in your country. By installing this patch, you agree not to hold Mangagamer liable for any damages caused by misuse of this patch”, etc. etc.

If they release the game censored, the fan community will likely make a patch to add the CGs back themselves, and will resent Mangagamer for not releasing it completely uncensored in the first place. With this solution, Mangagamer can (hopefully) keep any goverments or laws off their back, while providing an official solution to the issue.

Removing original content from the game is the last thing you want to do as a translation company. As some people have said, a patch to add the removed CG back in the game will probably be out in a week or so, since the Japanese version is out there on the net. So at the end, the fans will still get what they want, but what about you guys as a company? For one, you will destroy your reputation. I’m not sure if you know this, but the recent “hentai ban” started by EN and other radical feminists made fans very VERY sensitive about any kind of censorship. Trust me when I say eroge fans tolerance for “political correctness” is at an all time low right now, you do not want to be a factor that adds to the flame. Also, considering people can and will get their hands on the “full” version of the game anyway, the ones that really suffer are those that buy your products and support you instead of looking for “other means” to get the game.

Well,today i just saw what this Nanami(AKA underaged character)looks like.I went with soft talk on my previos post since i tought we were talking about a Loli girl,but now…WTF?
WHERE IN THE WORLD THIS> http://www.tsukuru.info/nanami.jpg IS LOLI?She looks older than Sia and Kaede.
I won’t get this game if such a ridiculous censorship is made.